Abstract

The Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum is a compilation of treatises on land-surveying which has been passed down to us in a manuscript from the sixth century AD. The best known authors included are Frontinus, Hyginus gromaticus and Siculus Flaccus. This paper addresses 11 passages in the corpus which discuss the origins of technical terms used in the text. Analysis of the content, language and style of these etymologies shows that they are later additions, which mostly originate from Varro, and should be deleted. It is also shown that, on palaeographic grounds, the order of a large body of text as found in modern editions must be reconsidered.